1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dual dispensing plastic bottle or container, and mcre particularly, to such a container that is adapted for the attachment thereto of a hand-operated trigger sprayer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present state of the plastics art no longer requires the storage of voluminous empty bottles or containers, manufacture of such containers from the raw material of thermoplastics by means of known extruder and blowing techniques, including the use of commercially available blow mold equipment, being feasible for small as well as large business concerns. This has contributed significantly to the improvement of profitability in the manufacture of such containers.
Further improvement in profitability of such plastic containers has been achieved by forming, effectively without further cost, a "twist-off" closure for the container opening or orifice as an integral part thereof while the container is still in the mold but after it has been filled with the product that it is intended to hold. When twisted off, the closure forms an outlet opening or orifice for the container through which the product therein may be poured or otherwise taken out. It has also been proposed in the prior art to so configure the twist-off closure as to allow it to be pressed into the orifice to reseal the container.
A need has existed in the prior art for a dual dispensing container (conventionally blow molded or form/fill/seal), that is one having two outlet openings or orifices, and particularly, such a container that can be used with a hand-operated trigger sprayer for allowing the consumer to selectively dispense, when necessary or desirable and without removing the trigger sprayer from the container, product at a rate that is greater than that which can be dispensed by the trigger sprayer.
This has posed a problem, however, in the identification of a way to achieve this result without adding prohibitively to the manufacturing cost of the container. Proposals made in the prior art to provide a secondary opening or orifice in containers used with trigger sprayers have either been cost prohibitive, involving radical changes to blow mold tooling, additional pieces, and/or additional labor to assemble, or they have required extensive lead times.